Eswa Ceiling Heating

SiHH · 22 Oct 2006 at 16:36

Hi,

Was wondering if any of you have this where you live or know much about it ?

I moved into my place in July this year and the place has both Economy 7 Storage Heaters (pah!) and this Eswa Ceiling Heating.

Does anyone know how expensive it is to run the ceiling heating in comparison to other methods such as central heating or instant electric heaters ?

Also on another note I received my first bill from my elec company and they are charging me £40pm at the moment (without any heating at the mo) - seems very high, what do you think ? I checked the meters and this figure is the final figure after adjustments.

Thanks.

i know nothing · 22 Oct 2006 at 17:27

You can find about it here.

If you look in your consumer unit (fusebox), what size fuse do you have in there? That would give an indication of how power hungry it is.

SiHH · 25 Oct 2006 at 16:42

i know nothing said:
You can find about it here.

If you look in your consumer unit (fusebox), what size fuse do you have in there? That would give an indication of how power hungry it is.

Hi thanks for the reply.

Its a 15a fuse..

Glaucus · 25 Oct 2006 at 16:46

No idea, never heard of it, but sounds silly to me.

1) hot air floats upwards not down.
2) plaster board and other general house structures aren't great at conducting heat..

surely it must be very inefficient.

i know nothing · 25 Oct 2006 at 18:11

siloleth said:
Hi thanks for the reply.

Its a 15a fuse..

Well lets's assume it draws 13 amps, that will equate to (240V x 13A = 3120Watts) 3.12 Kilowatts.

If you check your electricity bill it should give you the cost per unit. A unit is the same as a kilowatt hour, i.e. if a unit costs 10p, then this ceiling heating would cost you (10p x 3.12 Kilowatts) £0.312 per hour to run.

So let's say you run it for 12 hours per day and there are 30 days in a month:-

£0.312 x 12 x 30 = £112.32 per month or £336.96 per quarter.

The calculation is correct but I've just made the figures up, so feel free to substitute your own. You may well have Economy 7 heating so you get a cheap night rate, in which case you'll have to perform the calculation twice, once for the daytime rate (i.e. at 10p per unit), once for the economy 7 rate (i.e. 4p per unit between midnight and 7:00am).

Without putting a current meter on it it will be impossible to tell exactly how much it will draw, I've guessed the 13A, it could be 10A for all I know (but we know for sure it isn't greater than 15A and there are 10A fuses so I'm guessing it falls inbetween).

Furthermore I suspect it is controlled using a thermostat. Once the temperature at the thermostat has been achieved the electricity supply to the heaters will stop. So it will come on and off as required. How often the heaters come on will depend on how quickly the room cools down (i.e. the effectiveness of the insulation, whether you leave doors or windows open etc etc).

So let's say it is actually "on" for 30% of the time above:-
£112.32 x 30% = £33.70 per month or £101.08 per quarter.

Edit:- Electric heating even with Economy 7 is expensive, your storage heaters should be set to only come on with the cheaper night time rate, even so, they add up.

fatiain · 25 Oct 2006 at 18:24

Why would one want to heat ones ceiling? It'd keep the cat warm I suppose.

ElRazur · 25 Oct 2006 at 18:34

fatiain said:
Why would one want to heat ones ceiling? It'd keep the cat warm I suppose.

Balanced heating and warmth? I mean floors in some house are heated so why not celilings..?

Glaucus · 25 Oct 2006 at 18:58

ElRazur said:
Balanced heating and warmth? I mean floors in some house are heated so why not celilings..?

because hot air rises, hence floor heating.